In an extraordinary step to stop the spread of coronavirus, bars and restaurants in Dallas will be required to close effective 11:59 p.m. Monday, city officials announced. It’s unclear how long the closures will last.
The mandate came hours after a recommendation by President Donald Trump to avoid eating at restaurants, bars and public food courts to stop the spread of coronavirus. Dallas also banned gatherings of 50 or more people.
City Manager T.C. Broadnax has broad authority until Friday to enact any emergency measures for the sake of public health; Broadnax already took one of those steps on Sunday, when the city opened the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center as a temporary emergency shelter for the homeless until Saturday morning. Council members on Wednesday will decide whether to extend the disaster declaration made by Mayor Eric Johnson last week.
Johnson also announced that night clubs, gyms, night clubs, theaters and entertainment venues would be forced to close.
Restaurants may remain open for drive-thru, delivery and take-out services.
“Public health has been at the core of our discussions over the last 24 hours,” Johnson said, adding that the decision was made after consulting public health experts and county officials. “The message that we heard has been consistent: Act early, act aggressively, act in the interest of public health first.”
Ambassador Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, said federal officials are "appealing to all Americans to take these steps, to protect each other and to ensure the virus doesn’t spread.”
Ten other states and major cities, such as Denver, had also ordered closures as of Monday afternoon.
Dallas County reported five more positive cases of coronavirus Monday afternoon, bringing its total cases to 19.
Johnson said in the press conference that the mandate “kept me up all night. I lost a lot of sleep over this.”
The city’s decision follows a nosedive in business at many Dallas-area restaurants. More than 13,557 restaurants and drinking establishments are in Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington combined, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those businesses employ just over 300,000 people.
Data from OpenTable, an online reservation system, shows that reservations were down at Dallas restaurants 35% on March 14. Harder-hit cities like Seattle and New York City were down nearly 65%.
“I understand the pain that this decision is going to cause," Johnson said. “This is the time that we have to focus on the greatest asset we have in this city, and that is our people and our communities.”
Breweries and wineries can only provide to-go services, Broadnax said. The city’s code enforcement department will be responsible for enforcement, with the help of the Dallas Police Department.
Despite the sweeping mandate, some restaurants in Dallas had already chosen to close.
Soraya Spencer, who operates Gather Kitchen in downtown Dallas, temporarily shuttered her restaurant, admitting on social media that it "might ruin our small business, but it is also the most selfless and responsible one I can make.”
Low or no profits — even for a short time — can be life or death for small business owners. “We’re like a fish out of water right now. We’re gasping for air,” says Ian Tate, executive chef at Lake House Bar and Grill near White Rock Lake in Dallas, in March 15. He says business was significantly down over the weekend.
“We can’t survive,” he says. Going without even one week of revenue is too long. What’s more, his restaurant is a patio bar, suited for families who want to enjoy the warm weather. January was “horrible,” Tate says. February was a little better. “But we didn’t plan on coronavirus. We didn’t plan on March being bad." As recently as a week ago, the operators were looking forward to tossing open the doors this month and hosting live-music concerts.
Tate says they would rather close Lake House on their own terms than try to survive past a mandatory shutdown. He also doesn’t want to wait to see if a government stimulus package could help. “I lived through Katrina,” he says: He was a chef in New Orleans at the time.
“We would rather close here and start over — than stay open and owe the government money,” he says.
For Gold Rush Cafe owner George Sanchez, the longest his restaurant could go on low profits is “a couple of months” — and that would be a challenge.
“We worry about the future is going to bring. ... We operate on such small margins,” Sanchez says. In mid-March, his diner pivoted to a to-go only model in an effort to be “proactive” for customers and curb the spread of COVID-19. His to-go business has been slow, but it’s been better than nothing.
He’s not willing to call it quits yet. “We’re a little scared, for sure, about whether we’ll be able to be here,” he says. “We’re just trying to be safe and see what happens. We’re making our decisions day to day, hour to hour.”
There’s been a battle cry from some restaurateurs, pleading with Dallas diners to “support local.” But that wish felt in in direct conflict with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s suggestion to “put distance between yourself and other people.”
Emily Williams Knight, president & CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association, had led a campaign to “keep restaurants open" — and to let them decide how to cater to patrons in trying times, whether that be contactless delivery, drive-thru or to-go food.
Knight wrote in a statement on March 15 that a shutdown “would drive panic and complete societal breakdown.”
How restaurants in Dallas are reacting
Many restaurants have novel ideas to keep money coming in.
Sevy’s Grill, for instance, is offering “valet pickup,” where customers order food online and pick it up from the valet stand. Upscale restaurants like Jose and Homewood, which are better known for being sit-down restaurants, are offering takeout.
Here’s a list of Dallas-area restaurants that are offering to-go and delivery food.
It’s too early to tell whether these measures will save some restaurants.
Find more coronavirus coverage:
- CDC recommends no gatherings of 50 or more for 8 weeks
- A list of D-FW restaurants pivoting to curbside pickup and ‘no touch’ delivery
- A list of D-FW restaurants closing temporarily
- Coronavirus FAQ: What you need to know
- A running list of live updates, including the number of coronavirus cases, from The Dallas Morning News
